I was having a debate with the Mrs regarding True Spiders. Do any of you every catch local "True Spiders" and keep them in the same manner that you keep Ts? I don't mean ordering a brown recluse on the net...I'm talking about spiders native to your area...
Debate with the Mrs...
- Thread starter mcliff1
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Thats what I mostly keep now, wolfs, kukulcania, fishing spiders and more
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Native true spiders are much more active and interesting, in my opinion.
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widows, widows......
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Wow, thats a bold statment lol, but I have to agree for the most part.Native true spiders are much more active and interesting, in my opinion.
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I think it depends on where you live..
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Yeah, you didn't really state what the debate was about, but I've got a hunch. Here's how it kind of looks to me: I think there is a bunch of commercialization, labeling, and hype going on just to sell a product. Availability and rarity are key ideas to selling things, it's commercialization. I know people that wouldn't pull a banana off a banana plant and eat it because it wasn't sold at an HEB store because they think it's "dirty" and not safe, hahaha!, strange thinking!!. Due to commercialization, they think the store made the banana. The local stuff, IMO, is just as interesting at the non-native stuff. You just have to realize your world is just like everybody else's in a big way no matter what part of the world. People interested in the invert hobby in China, Malaysia, Russia, Germany, Scotland etc., would love to get a giant waterbug, a heros pede, an Aphonopelma T, a recluse, a house spider, a Black Widow, a US Solifugid, a US vinegarone, etc. There is interesting stuff here as well. Some cool tropical stuff out there, I won't deny that but a lot of cool stuff here too.
It can also depend on what you're into. There aren't many giants here in GA. Not many scorps, or big pedes, or tailless whips... lots of L. mactans though, and other neat true spiders. One day I'm going to make a collecting trip for C. truncata! :drool:
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ditto.....
ditto as well, and local jumping spiders.
I will say that when I find a cool local bug, I'm much more apt to observe and photo and then just let it about it's business. With stuff from other locals I only acquire it if I think I have a chance of breeding it. Which is really my same philosophy with local stuff, eg. I collect and breed widows.
Our debate revolved around the merit of caputuring, observing, breeding, etc; local spiders. She seems to think it is somewhat pointless - they live inside and outside the house already - why bother "keeping" them. My thought was - why not? You can observe and enjoy them the same way we do with the Ts.
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Indeed! As for locals, I keep a house spider and two fishing spiders. The fishing spiders are my favourites
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Locals are awesome! I keep basically whatever the heck I find!
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I keep a lot of native species. In colorado I kept A LOT of jumping spiders and widows. I was producing more widows than I knew what to do with. So I turned the babies loose. Now I've moved to GA and I'm collecting all kinds of crazy spiders. A lot of which I'm still in the process of IDing. Right now I have 8 really common "house spiders" that are in cages. There's like hundereds of them in this house. I just enjoy keeping arachnids. They fascinate me.
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Fish live outside as well